Monthly Archives: January 2017

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ITEC’s Pauline Prior spent a night of fun with her son, daughter and son-in-law at Escape Live Southend. Here, Aaron (son-in-law) takes up the tale…….

Imagine being locked in a strange room and the only way to get out is to enter a key code. A key code that you do not have. A code that you must assemble by solving puzzle after puzzle until you think you have the right one. To make things worse; you have only one hour to do so, or risk being locked in indefinitely. Worse still; imagine being locked in with your in-laws!!

Forget your imagination though, for this has become a reality!

Squeezed between two High Street shops is the doorway to Escape Live Southend. Its inconspicuousness is a sign of things to come. Up the stairs you go and into the reception area to be greeted by the enthusiastic and friendly hosts and games masters. Following a briefing on what lay ahead and a few key ‘do’s and don’ts’, you are led further up the stairs and into ‘Dr. Wilson’s Office’, where you will be spending the majority (if not all) of the next hour trying to get out!

The door is locked, the timer starts and the fun begins. The excitement takes over and in the first few minutes (let’s call it phase one), the scene can only be described as an eclipse of moths in a small lamp shade. Phase two: Everybody is Sherlock Holmes. Phase Three: Teamwork finally begins.

60 minutes quickly becomes 50 minutes; which quickly becomes 40, 30, 20 and then only 10 minutes to go and you have no idea how close or far from escaping you are.

“Give us a clue!” becomes the quote of the day. In fact, make that phase four.

The minutes become seconds and things start to fall into place, but the doubt feeds the adrenaline and clouds the mind. You find the code that you think you need and proceed to enter it to secure your successful escape.

The door opens and the adrenaline and doubt instantly turns to euphoria and relief. We escaped!

Mind you, it’s not like they would keep you locked in there if you failed. Would they??

Escape Live Southend is a great way to start or finish your night out – even with your in-laws!